Today Marks Our Ninth Year of Blogging

Greetings to those of you in Dubai, Singapore and the Republic of Istanbul (forgive the Turkish-American humor).

Yes, we count only candles as well, but today marks the ninth anniversary of our very first blog entry on Sept. 21, 2005, on "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

In 2005, Zappa the Family Cat was still a one-year-old kitten, it had only been four years since Sept. 11th, and gun wackos only had one Uzi per household.

We have frequently mentioned everything from George F. Will to Zippy the Pinhead and from H.R. Puff N Stuff to Alice Cooper as well as everything from Turkish soccer player Burak Yilmaz to Katarina Witt.

Hopefully, we will continue blogging (when we have time) for years to come even though blogging, which is a product of modern tech, might soon be nullified by modern tech as well....

Quoting William Shakespeare (1 of 5)

What do Che Guevara, Jesus Christ and William Shakespeare all have in common?

Well, they've all had bobblehead dolls made after them, of course!

Here is our quip from the Bard:

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff."

If you are looking for a refuge from Christmas play season, we highly recommend a production of the American Shakespeare Center's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" if you happen to be in the Staunton, Va., area where the stage company is based.

SIDEBAR: I happy to report that my doppelganger, and yes we checked Google to make sure this term was spelled correctly, Cenk Uygur will be back on television with a new daily show airing on Current TV at 7:00 p.m.

Uygur and I have many things in common. We are both politically progressive. We are both Turkish-Americans. And, amazingly enough we were born on a mere 16 days a part in March of 1970 (I was the one who was born first, not that that matters really).

Up until George W. Bush's now dubious decision to go to war over Iraq, Uygur was actually a Republican so I presume he did not vote for Michael Dukakis, a Greek-American, as I did, which did NOT quite go over well with the relatives in Istanbul.

And, I supported Hillary Clinton at the primary stage though Uygur endorsed Barack Obama. Ironically, it seems that I am considerably less critical of Obama than Uygur. But, all things considered, I agree with Uygur about 90 percent of the time, and I know he will be a great counter to the dittoheads on Fox News, and a strong complement to Keith Olbermann's show which airs at 8:00 p.m. on Current.

Both Olbermann and Uygur were previously talk show hosts on MSNBC.

SIDEBAR TWO: The answer to our Rabbit Ears Quiz on "H.R. Pufnstuf" (not spelled correctly on our tags) was C) $325. Yes, that is how much someone on e-bay is offering for an H.R. Pufnstuf lunch box. The products were made in limited quantity in 1971. We sure hope it has the thermos.

Things We Learned on Twitter Very Early This A.M.

For those who have been keeping track of our entry over the years, you may recall that we have periodically blogged about the beloved late sixties children's tv show "H.R. Puff N Stuff" (pictured here) which through some research on our part has revealed to be a show that was allegedly about the wonder of smoking pot!

This leads to our story of the story which stems from the seaside village of Paphos, Cyprus, in the southwestern Greek portion of the island nation which has been politically divided since war broke out between Turkey and Greece over the conflicting ethnic groups' residential status in 1974.

(It should be pointed out perhaps for the 105th time that I am a Turkish-American, but if you read below, you'll see this entry has nothing to do with ethnic politics------we promise!)

According to an early morning tweet stating: 'Teenage boy arrested for cannibis in Cyprus' from "The Cyprus Mail," which I saw at 4:30 a.m., American east coast time as I was battling insomnia, an 18-year-old male from Paphos was arrested by Cypriot police and charged with possesion and use of drugs with intent to pass the proverbial bong (not the way they actually worded it!) to a third person.

If convicted, the youth, who was not identified by name, could face a LIFE sentence?! And, I thought my father's country wasn't exactly progressive when it came to marijuana!

On a more serious note, I was very saddened to hear about the Israeli commando raid of the Turkish ship The Marmara which was carrying relief supplies to Palestinians. I will keep my political perspective out of this matter on this blog, but all of us in the Turkish-American are thinking about the nine people on the vessel, including four Turkish nationals, who needlessly lost their lives on Monday.

And, on a less serious note, The Seven's Turkish Grill located on 72nd Street in New York has just posted lessons on Youtube on how to fix the fabled Iskender Kebab dish that is the pride of Bursa, Turkey. Oh, we should mention that you can follow them on Twitter---http://twitter.com/7Turkishgrill for more details.

Lastly, this morning was not a good one for the Louisville Bats, a minor league baseball team from Louisville, Ky.

According to their Twitter site http://twitter.com/LouisvilleBats, the team fell to the Columbus Clippers by a 10-7 margine in a road game. All of this proves that baseball games (this particular game started at 10:35 a.m.) should simply never be played before noon!